How to use this tool
Use this tool for a mechanical punctuation transformation you have already decided to make. It can remove three supported em-dash characters, replace each with an ASCII hyphen, or keep them unchanged. It does not choose a grammatical replacement or revise a sentence for you. The default action is removal, so keep an original copy and inspect the diff before using the result in a document, form, or publishing system.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Input | Keep | Hyphen | Remove |
|---|---|---|---|
| A—B | A—B | A-B | AB |
| A — B | A — B | A - B | A B |
| A⸺B | A⸺B | A-B | AB |
| A–B | A–B | A–B | A–B |
Confirm which punctuation you want to change
The supported marks are the em dash U+2014, two-em dash U+2E3A, and three-em dash U+2E3B. An en dash, an ordinary hyphen, and a mathematical minus sign are different characters and remain unchanged by this rule. This distinction matters in a document with number ranges, negative quantities, and hyphenated words alongside sentence punctuation.
Paste a short representative sample first. Inspect the report and confirm that the mark you intend to change is one of the supported characters. If another horizontal-looking mark remains, do not assume the rule failed. Identify it before making a separate edit. Replacing every dash-like symbol indiscriminately can change content that has a different purpose from the punctuation you meant to revise.
Understand the default result
The page starts in Custom mode with Remove dashes selected. Invisible-character removal and space normalization are off. Pressing Clean text deletes each supported dash character while leaving neighboring text and spaces intact. Thus A—B becomes AB, while A — B becomes A B with two ordinary spaces. The tool does not infer whether a gap is needed.
Try an example loads a sentence with spaces around an em dash. Run the tool and inspect both the diff and output. You should see the dash removed while the existing spaces remain. This is a deliberately simple demonstration of the rule. If your actual sentence needs a comma, colon, or word such as because, make that change in your editor rather than expecting the remover to infer it.
Choose keep, replacement, or removal
Keep dashes leaves the supported marks as they are. Replace dashes with hyphens turns each supported character into one U+002D hyphen-minus. Remove dashes deletes the characters. These options operate per code point: a single two-em dash character becomes one hyphen under replacement, not two hyphens. Check specialized typography before applying that transformation.
Changing a rule clears the old output, so press Clean text again before copying. Switching to Conservative mode also sets dash handling to keep. The visible rule note describes the active configuration. If a result differs from your expectation, check the mode and selected option first rather than rerunning the same input without changing anything.
Separate punctuation editing from hidden-character cleanup
This page provides the shared text tool, but its default is intentionally focused on dashes. Turn on Remove invisible only when you also have a justified hidden-character task. In Custom mode that setting may remove joiners used in emoji or connected scripts. Combining edits without reviewing them separately makes it harder to explain what changed and why.
Normalize spaces changes supported special spaces to ordinary ones. It does not collapse doubled ordinary spaces left by a dash removal, trim lines, or reflow paragraphs. If your sentence develops an extra gap, repair the sentence or spacing in the destination editor. Keeping these operations distinct helps you avoid treating a narrow punctuation preference as permission to rewrite every unusual character.
Review a sentence instead of just a count
Read the words on both sides of each removed dash. In The test failed—one value was missing, deletion produces a joined boundary between failed and one. A clearer editorial rewrite might say The test failed because one value was missing. A replacement hyphen keeps a visible separator but does not automatically create a well-formed sentence.
For a parenthetical aside, commas, parentheses, or a shorter rewrite may be more suitable. For quoted material, follow your publication's rules and preserve the original wording when exact quotation matters. A low changed-character count does not tell you whether the result reads well. The diff locates the edit; reading in context determines whether to accept it.
Use the previews and clipboard correctly
Show spaces makes ordinary gaps visible as dots in the preview, which is helpful for spotting doubled spaces after removal. Show tabs offers a similar visual aid for indentation. Neither option changes the text that Copy result writes to the clipboard. The result textarea contains the actual generated output, while the previews can be shortened for long passages.
The report displays the first thirty findings, so divide long documents into manageable sections when you need to inspect all affected sentences. If clipboard access fails, select the output and copy manually. Changing the input or any transformation rule invalidates the previous result to avoid copying stale text. Generate a fresh result after your final adjustment.
Validate the result and its purpose
Paste the output into the intended application and check both the saved text and the rendered appearance. Some editors apply smart punctuation or special handling to repeated hyphens. If a destination changes the characters again, investigate its settings. Repeated cleaning does not address a transformation that happens only when the destination saves or publishes the text.
Use punctuation changes for clarity, style consistency, or explicit format compatibility. An em dash is not proof of AI authorship, and removing it does not guarantee a result from any AI detector. The application does not verify facts or required attribution. Keep those publishing checks separate, retain an original until review is complete, and accept only the changes you can explain in the context of the sentence.